Mirwais - Production [Japanese Edition] (2000)

"Disco Science," his toweringly provocative debut single, demonstrated Mirwais's disco roots, but the French producer distorted and twisted that yardstick out of all recognition via wild pitch-shifting and a taste for acid bass lines. Production only emphasizes this penchant for reinvention by taking some of the most popular sounds from late '70s and early '80s dance floors--Moroder beats, Vocoders, analogue synth sounds--and willfully hammering them into fresh shapes on numbers such as "Naive Song" and "Junkie's Prayer." Mirwais's skills brought him to the attention of Madonna, who kidnapped his production prowess for her Music album. She returns the favor with this album's centerpiece, "Paradise Not for Me." This exquisite blend of French monologue and treated English vocal, all married to swelling synths, indicates why Mirwais was seen as the hottest, most chic Parisian electronic producer from an apparently endless line of talent--including Daft Punk, Air, and Cassius--that continues to emanate from the city. Mirwais offers a nod to his compatriots on the Daft Punk-like "I Can't Wait," which matches a pulverizing stop-start rhythm to buzz-saw bleeps, as well as to New York's turntablist scene on "Definitive Beat," a juddering breakbeat layered with skidding scratch work. A devastatingly original album from a true pioneer. --Mike Pattenden